These notes were given to me through a conversation with Jeff from the AZOHVC.

White Tanks access was shut down. Meetings with both the BLM and STL have provided an agreement that access to the trails on BLM land via an roadway off Watson Road will be granted. Signage will be required to keep people on the road, staging areas are being looked into and in the future if dust on the road way becomes an issue we may need to look into mitigation. We will still have some issues with getting unlicensed rigs to the trails since no staging area is privided yet on STL, but if the tow rigs can get to BLM land you are home free.

July 1st 2009 Permit Fees will go back to $15 and $20. I do have a question out about those who bought them at the higher price what will happen. In addition STL is going to pursue getting the permit fees kept within STL for trails and no longer going to the black hole that is the state general fund. They have a good chance of getting this done, it may take a letter writing campaign to our elected officials.

I think the big one with STL is they are recognizing OHV as a recreation on STL, this is a first. They have long denied this as an approved use, they have made a huge change in their opinion.

In the past STL would not allow the display of the trails on STL on BLM or Forest Service maps. This causes a huge planning problem. The BLM struggles with this right now with the Table Mesa Planning. Recently a proposal from the AZOHVC for the Table Mesa area that was given to the STL that includes both was deemed very helpful by the STL and they prefer having their trails on one map. They are going to reverse previous decisions an allow their land and mapped trails to be depicted on other agency maps, this is going to help dramatically. This is also why it is so important to get the trails to the coalition when making these maps, as the STL is keeping the trails we logged on the proposal.

I cannot say it strongly enough, these doors were all opened via the lobbyist with his connections and through his hard work. If not for him all of the above would not be happening.

DanFelix

04-08-2009, 06:39 PM

Chris,
Thanks for the updates, this is great news.

lancetkenyon

04-09-2009, 01:41 PM

You guys/gals ROCK!!!

SamuraiAZ

04-09-2009, 05:03 PM

thanks for the update

krispykritter

04-09-2009, 07:42 PM

What permits should I have to go wheeling? I have none now, but I want to do the right thing and have all nessary pemits for wherever my jeep takes me.

1eagle

04-09-2009, 08:02 PM

Thanks, Chris and all who helped get this done. Great job.

corwyyn

04-09-2009, 08:04 PM

State Land Trust permit (but wait until the price drops if you can), permit for Bulldog Canyon (free but you need to go to the Tonto Ranger Station, off the west side of Higley one block south of McKellips in Mesa). Everything else I can think of is pretty much pay-as-you-go, Sedona has the Red Rock passes which are $5 per day or $20 per week (I think those are the current prices). I think there is a fee to go to the dunes down by Yuma, $28 or something like that.

My1stJeep

04-09-2009, 10:51 PM

What permits should I have to go wheeling? I have none now, but I want to do the right thing and have all nessary pemits for wherever my jeep takes me.

If you are on State Trust Land, which to get to just about any trail out there you must cross you are supposed to have a State Trust Land Permit.

wild mustang

04-09-2009, 11:01 PM

cannot say it strongly enough, these doors were all opened via the lobbyist with his connections and through his hard work. If not for him all of the above would not be happening.

and lobbyists cost $$$....so any donation large or small helps....the lobbyist has also saved our butts by letting the ohv groups know about pending legislation before it was too late to do anything about it....

chris...do i remember hearing that at present we are sharing this lobbyist with another group? and that after this year we will need to have our own?